Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1203912
53 A LANDLOCKED, HANDCRAFTED SURF SHACK BY REBECCA SHERMAN. PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHEN KARLISCH. STYLING JENNY O'CONNOR. FLOWERS HAILE WOSSEN, ANTHOS. DESIGNER CHAD DORSEY'S FOREST HILLS HOUSE SWEPT THE PAPERCITY DESIGN AWARDS. WITH A LAIDBACK, SIMPLE WEST COAST VIBE AND NODS TO GRAFFITI-TAGGED SURF SHACKS, IT'S EXACTLY THE SENSIBILITY THAT DORSEY ADORES. C had Dorsey, an interior designer and trained architect, has built and renovated dozens of homes for both clients and himself over the years. Often it becomes an exercise in box-checking. "I design so many houses where the program is all about resale," says Dorsey, who co- founded MORE Design + Build in 2005 with partner Kurt Bielawski. An interiors- focused business, Chad Dorsey Design, launched in 2018. Dorsey found himself in that box-checking situation several years ago, when he was drawing plans for his own new home in Forest Hills. His original design for the 4,500-square-foot residence included two stories with four upstairs bedrooms and other amenities geared for a large family. It was the kind of house that would be easy to sell, but it felt impersonal. And it was way too much house for him, Bielawski, and their two dogs, a Jack Russell terrier named Jackson and a corgi mix named Lucy. "The more I got into it, the more I thought about what I really needed, what I really wanted, and what my lifestyle was really like," he says. So Dorsey headed back to the drawing board and came up with something more his style: a 3,000-square-foot single-story house with two modestly sized bedrooms, three bathrooms, spacious open living and kitchen areas, a mudroom/office, and a cozy TV lounge. The redesign's smaller footprint also allowed for a bigger yard. "I've been designing houses for myself for 15 years," he says, "and this is the most livable one yet." If you think the architecture of this house looks like one favored on the West Coast, you'd be right. Dorsey spends a lot of time in L.A., where he recently opened a satellite design office, and he also keeps a small getaway in the San Juan Islands off the Washington coast. "For me, the perfect lifestyle is to live on the water in a simple building that's still luxurious, with all of the things I need and want to be comfortable," he says. "So I came up with the idea of a surf shack in Dallas with rustic cedar shingles on the exterior and corrugated metal on the roof and garages." Then he stained it all black, In the living room, Design Within Reach sofa. Vintage Cedric Hartman floor lamps from Vinya. Pair of vintage black-leather chairs belonged to Dorsey's uncle. Drapery fabric is Mokum New Zealand linen from Holly Hunt.